Nov. 3, 2025 - Flower City Fall Ukulele Jamboree/SICILY UPDATE
This was a well organized and successful event. Kudos to all involved.
My ukulele princess with “Winnie” her 1920s Martin Style 3K
Tom Toyama, Hawaiian native and western New York transplant, gave a stunning performance on solo ukulele.
Bonnie Abrams scored a nice, used Kala baritone uke.
And, once again, I donned the "calamari head" to ward off the candy beggars on Halloween
The start of a nice evening on the front porch with a wine made by our neighbors just down the street. Julie is trying to put an event together with Ravines Winery and our store with some music and art…perhaps a first Friday event may be in the works.
Pickled vegetables from the garden. They should be ready by Thanksgiving!
When a long time customer comes to the store and says, "I think I’m going to get rid of lots of my stuff and consolidate into one nice guitar… perhaps a new guitar from one of the boutique builders….and then I hand him a 1942 Gibson Roy Smeck…and it’s a whole different game.
Flower City Fall Ukulele Jamboree/SICILY UPDATE
November 3rd, 2025
Good morning friends,
Julie and I spent all day Sunday at the Flower City Fall Ukulele Jamboree. I’ve been working an awful a lot lately. I’ve been into Rochester on Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday… back-and-forth is 100 miles so I wasn’t looking forward to doing a little ukulele festival on a beautiful fall Sunday afternoon. But I had agreed to do it and I tried to help Julie the best I could. It was an all day affair that was well organized with open mics and various ukulele groups from across the area. As the day progressed, I realized the genius of this whole music scene….it brings people together for a bit of respite from the world outside. The happiness was overflowing. Although she didn’t organize this particular festival, a lot of credit goes to my dear wife, Julie. When we opened the store 20 years ago, she started the Rochester Ukulele Support Group. Out of that group of people grew the Rochester Ukulele Orchestra, who performed at the event. I’ve included some pictures here because we got home quite late to write a detailed John’s Corner, although I do have a few brief announcements.
First, we have some exciting news. If you followed my pilgrimage in Sicily last winter, you may remember that I met some young kids who took me on a little tour of their town of Alcamo. We spent lots of time and engaged in great conversation, which I immensely enjoyed, and when I left, I invited them to come to America. Now these four young kids have never been outside of Europe, as far as I know, but they gathered their passports and their visas and they bought tickets and they will be landing in New York City around November 17th. They will be visiting me in Penn Yan for Thanksgiving and staying with us until they return to Sicily at the beginning of December. So the day after Thanksgiving, I am hosting a "meet and greet" at the store and these for young, talented kids. We will be hanging out, playing guitars and meeting our friends. I will be providing lots of nice "day after Thanksgiving" treats…..all are welcome.
Secondly, we have purchased our tickets and Julie and I are flying to Sicily on December 30th. We will enjoy a New Year’s Eve in Trapani. She has agreed to spend a couple of weeks with me, but will return in the middle of January. Her help is needed with the business, the dogs and assisting her mom. So I will be there until the end of March… visitors are welcome and I will buy you a Campari and soda and give you a nice little tour. At the end of March, I am planning to go to the Netherlands for a little Dutch Easter vacation….back to the USA in early April.
With peace,
John Bernunzio
Nino, Marco, Mauro and Monica at Marco’s graduation….dottoree
Manning the booth.
Rochester Ukulele Orchestra
The gardens are being put to bed for the winter….
The harvest is complete….